Pope Leo XIV greets people as he arrives for a two-week stay in the summer papal estate in Castel Gandolfo, 40 km southeast of Rome, on July 6, 2025. The newly elected Pope Leo XIV, revives a long-standing papal tradition paused under Francis, as Castel Gandolfo prepares to welcome a pope for the first time in over a decade. (Credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)
Rome Newsroom, Jul 6, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has been welcomed by wellwishers upon his arrival to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on Sunday.
Crowds of people standing behind barriers greeted the Holy Father, taking photos and shouting “Viva Papa!” as he walked towards the papal palace located southeast of Rome.
Pope Leo XIV arrives at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo to start his summer holiday, the first part of which lasts until July 20. pic.twitter.com/pVkar0MJIs
The pope will reside in Castel Gandolfo’s Villa Barberini during his two-week summer vacation taking place from July 6–20, continuing a centuries-old papal tradition of rest at the 135-acre estate.
According to the New York Times, the property’s swimming pool has been refreshed and a new tennis court installed for the pope who is known for his appreciation of physical fitness and training.
Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI all spent at least part of the summers in Castel Gandolfo, following the Lateran Pact of 1929.
Pope Leo XIV waves to the people from the terrace of the summer papal estate where he arrives for a two-week stay in Castel Gandolfo, 40 km southeast of Rome, on July 6, 2025. Credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images
Pope Francis chose to not use the property as a summer residence during his 12-year pontificate. The late pontiff instead chose to open the estate’s gardens to the general public in 2014 and, in 2016, converted the papal palace into a museum.
The palace and gardens will remain open to the public during Leo’s stay, since he will be living in the Villa Barberini, a different palazzo on the grounds.
Castel Gandolfo mayor Alberto de Angelis told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, last month that Pope Leo’s stay “will give back to the city its daily connection with the pope.”
“The Angelus, the visits, the contact with the people. We want to experience all of that again,” Mayor de Angelis said.
Pope Leo will continue to deliver his weekly Angelus addresses Liberty Square (Piazza della Libertà) in front of the pontifical palace on July 13 and on July 20.
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Vatican City, Nov 30, 2018 / 06:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Servant of God Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic politician from Pakistan who was killed in 2011, is a witness of how to act with love in the face of hatred, Pope Francis said Friday.
Pope Francis hears confessions of teenagers in St. Peter’s Square. / L’Osservatore Romano.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 21, 2025 / 11:41 am (CNA).
The Vatican has announced that despite the death of Pope Francis, the Jubilee of Teenagers is still scheduled to take place in Rome beginning this Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27.
According to a statement from the Dicastery for Evangelization, the event is expected to draw upwards of 80,000 teenagers from all over the world to the Vatican.
Several adjustments are being made to the program due to the death of the Holy Father.
Among the changes: The previously scheduled April 27 canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis has been postponed. Due to the time of mourning, the musical celebration at Circus Maximus scheduled for April 26 at 5 p.m. has also been canceled.
Jubilee of Teenagers programming still scheduled to take place includes the April 25 “Via Lucis” prayer time, the “Dialogues with the City” squares on Saturday, April 26, the pilgrimages to the Holy Door and the holy Mass, without the canonization of Acutis, in St. Peter’s Square on April 27.
The first-ever Jubilee of Teenagers figures as one of the most anticipated events of the holy year and is especially dedicated to young people, who will have a unique experience of “faith, spiritual growth, and intercultural exchange.”
The vast majority of those registered come from Italy, although numerous groups are also expected to arrive from the United States, Brazil, India, Spain, Portugal, France, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Nigeria, and many other countries.
The delegations will come from dioceses, youth ministries, associations, and movements such as the Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, Italian Catholic Action, and the Salesian Youth Movement, among others.
The official program includes several highlights, beginning with the Via Lucis (Way of Light), an act of piety in which the apparitions of the risen Christ are meditated upon, which will take place on April 25 in the EUR neighborhood, just outside Rome.
On Saturday, April 26, there will be a day of thematic events throughout Rome, called “Dialogues with the City.”
One of the culminating moments will be on Sunday, April 27, with Mass in St. Peter’s Square, though without the canonization of Acutis.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA
At his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 21, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appeals for peace and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where, he said, children and elderly are suffering. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, May 21, 2025 / 08:05 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV in the first general audience of his pontificate on Wednesday appealed for an end to hostilities in Gaza and for the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Speaking before tens of thousands of attendees on an overcast day in St. Peter’s Square, the new pope ended his remarks by calling the situation in the Gaza Strip “increasingly worrying and painful.”
“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of decent humanitarian aid and to end the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is paid by children, the elderly, and the sick,” he added.
The pope’s appeal comes as the numbers of dead and injured in the Gaza Strip continue to rise under Israel’s attacks. According to reports, while some humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter Gaza, it has not yet been released for distribution.
One month to the day since Francis’ death, Pope Leo also recalled with gratitude the “beloved Pope Francis, who just a month ago returned to the house of the Father.”
Leo closely followed his written remarks, only adding the comment on Gaza, during the May 21 public audience, which he began by taking a turn around the square in the popemobile to cheers, banners, and waving flags. Some people stood on their chairs to try to catch a glimpse of the new pope, who paused often to bless babies of all ages held out to him in outstretched arms.
Pope Leo XIV pauses to bless a baby during his trip around St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile before the start of his first general audience on May 21, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media
The inaugural catechesis of the first U.S.-born pope picked up the theme begun by Francis for the 2025 Jubilee Year: “Jesus Christ our hope.”
Reflecting on the Parable of the Sower, Leo noted the unusual behavior of the sower in the story, who “does not care where the seed falls. He throws the seeds even where it is unlikely they will bear fruit: on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns.”
“The way in which this ‘wasteful’ sower throws the seed is an image of the way God loves us,” he said, echoing a part of his first message from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after his election on May 8, that God “loves us all unconditionally.”
“First and foremost in this parable Jesus tells us that God throws the seed of his Word on all kinds of soil, that is, in any situation of ours,” Leo underlined.
He continued: “God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom. This is how he loves us: he does not wait for us to become the best soil, but he always generously gives us his word. Perhaps by seeing that he trusts us, the desire to be better soil will be kindled in us. This is hope, founded on the rock of God’s generosity and mercy.”
The theme of personal transformation was also repeated later in the catechesis, when Leo said, “Jesus is the Word, he is the Seed. And the seed, to bear fruit, must die. Thus, this parable tells us that God is ready to ‘waste away’ for us and that Jesus is willing to die in order to transform our life.”
Chuma Asuzu, who is Nigerian-born and living in Canada, is happy to have attended Pope Leo XIV’s general audience on May 21, 2025 with his wife and children. Credit: Kristina Millare/CNA
Husband and father Chuma Asuzu from Canada came to the square early in the morning with his family to attend the pope’s first general audience.
“It was good and I think it was interesting how he explained the seeds and how it’s the word of God,” Asuzu shared with CNA. “I really appreciate it.”
“He made the point to drive around a lot because it was his first audience and he looked emotional at the beginning,” he added.
Instead of taking an example from literature or philosophy, as Pope Francis often did, Pope Leo used Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, “The Sower at Sunset,” to prompt a meditation on hope.
Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Sower at Sunset”. Public Domain.
“That image of the sower in the blazing sun also speaks to me of the farmer’s toil,” he said. “And it strikes me that, behind the sower, Van Gogh depicted the grain already ripe. It seems to me an image of hope: one way or another, the seed has borne fruit. We are not sure how, but it has.”
“At the center of the scene, however, is not the sower, who stands to the side; instead, the whole painting is dominated by the image of the sun, perhaps to remind us that it is God who moves history, even if he sometimes seems absent or distant,” the pope noted. “It is the sun that warms the clods of earth and makes the seed ripen.”
The pontiff’s final thought was to remind those present to ask the Lord for the grace to welcome the seed of his Word: “And if we realize we are not a fruitful soil, let us not be discouraged, but let us ask him to work on us more to make us become a better terrain.”
Leo closed the audience in the customary way, singing the “Our Father” prayer in Latin and then giving his apostolic blessing.
Among the pilgrims present on Wednesday was Father Rolmart Verano, who is leading a group of jubilee pilgrims from the Diocese of Surigao, Philippines.
“I never thought that one day I will come here [to Rome],” he told CNA. “It is one of my wildest dreams that came true!”
Father Rolmart Verano, from the Diocese of Surigao, Philippines, tells CNA at the general audience on May 21, 2025, that it was a dream come true for him to travel to Rome and see the pope. Credit: Kristina Millare/CNA
“The striking point of Pope Leo XIV’s general audience is when he said that the Word of God should take root in each one of our hearts,” he said. “It should serve as a guide for our daily lives no matter that it be ordinary or difficult circumstances.”
As one of 40 members of a pilgrim group from the Diocese of Mumbai, India, Sandesh Almeida said he was immediately impressed by the kindness shown by the new pontiff at the audience.
“Peace is a good message from him,” he said. “Now with India and Pakistan … we should go for peace and the pope is mostly focusing on peace.”
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